Square Enix dropped a brand new trailer for Kingdom Hearts III following the first Kingdom Hearts Orchestra show of E3 week, and it’s a solid update after having seen so little on the game for the last two years. On top of the obvious surprises such as seeing Maleficent and Xemnas in glorious 1080p, if you look a bit closer you’ll find a lot of other worthwhile tidbits as well. Let’s break this baby down.
The Introduction
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Many Kingdom Hearts trailers begin or end with cryptic messages, and this one is no different. This message states the following: “Don’t assume your dreams are just fantasy. If you can imagine a world, believe in it… and dive in.” The first line could tie in with all the themes of forgetting and remembering throughout the series, especially similar to Chain of Memories’ “To find is to lose, and to lose is to find” quote. Perhaps Sora has been having some more strange dreams, just like at the beginning of the very first game. The second line could be referring to how Sora was able to open a path to Olympus Coliseum at the end of Kingdom Hearts 0.2. After Goofy uttered the new catchphrase of “May your heart be your guiding key,” Sora was suddenly able to open a path to Hercules’ world.
Mount Olympus
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Sora dives into Mount Olympus, and we get a spectacular overview of the cloud town. With the tall buildings and floating platforms it is reminiscent of a much brighter version of Castle Town from Kingdom Hearts 0.2.
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Sora lands in the middle of a Heartless swarm with three allies in tow, as is evidenced by the HUD icons in the bottom-right corner. It would appear that you won’t have to switch out Donald or Goofy to have a world-specific fighter in your line-up. Instead all four of you can fight at once! And on the bottom-left corner we see Sora can use Counter Shield, much like Aqua’s abilities in KH 0.2.
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Here we see Counter Shield in action. This Keyblade transformation turns the Keyblade into the shield form we saw in a screenshot in 2016…
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…and its special attack summons many massive, golden fists to bring the pain the all nearby enemies.
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We’ve seen Sora use the Shotlock ability in a previous KHIII trailer from 2015, but having done so with Aqua in KH 0.2 just a few months ago, this looks fresh and new all over again.
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This is the Shotlock attack in action, following the previous screenshot.
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Much like Aqua had various special attacks in KH 0.2 including Spellweaver by herself or Wayfinder with Mickey, Sora will have several of these special attacks as well. Here we see him using Second Form. His clothes don’t look any different than normal, however, so this would seem to be different from a standard Drive Form, like in KHII.
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Look over there on the left! You can finally actually see Hercules on the screen, instead of just as an icon!
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Sora and Goofy prepare a combo attack. Sora jumps on Goofy’s shield, and lunges off of it into the air, bringing Goofy with him.
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Sora then grabs Goofy’s hand and spins him around a few times…
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…before sending him hurtling below to the crown of Heartless.
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After Goofy lands we can at last see all four party members on-screen at once (Goofy is running toward the other three from the top, where he landed after the combo attack).
The Disney League of Evil Returns
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Elsewhere in Olympus we see Maleficent and Pete approaching Hades through a dark portal. We have not seen Pete interact with Hades since Kingdom Hearts II, and I’m nearly certain Maleficent hasn’t caught up with him since way back in the first game.
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There’s nothing especially interesting about this scene, except that much like everyone else, Hades has never looked better. The cel-shading used in Kingdom Hearts III suits his slick and slimy style perfectly.
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Same as before. Everything about this looks fantastic.
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This is where things really get interesting. Remember that mysterious black box that the Master of Masters gave Luxu in Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover? It would appear that Maleficent at least knows of the box’s existence and importance, if nothing more.
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Hades plays coy, but that’s nothing new. We are left wondering whether he knows anything about it or not.
Rock Titan, Part 1
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Sora explores a stormy path, again with Donald and Goofy seemingly in tow, but for some reason they’re nowhere to be seen. Unlike the previous battle, there’s no Heartless in sight. Shouldn’t they be running right next to him like in previous games? Perhaps Kingdom Hearts III takes a cue from older Final Fantasy titles, and they only appear when you need them to, like for battles or cutscenes?
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Sora doesn’t get far before the Rock Titan hurls a boulder at him.
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The boulder smashes down next to Sora, creating a massive hole in the ledge that almost brings him down with it. Environmental damage seems to be a major part of big battles.
High Magic Proficiency
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During the ending cutscene to Kingdom Hearts 0.2, we learn that following Sora has lost all of his powers gained previously, thanks to falling into darkness at the end of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, essentially resetting him to level 1 once again. We also know that he, Donald, and Goofy, make a beeline to Olympus immediately after leaving Yensid’s tower. Why, then, at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts III, is Sora able to use the powerful magic spells of Firaga, Aeroga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga? Is this perhaps a mere training exercise, or will we be OP from the get-go after all, like how Aqua began KH 0.2 at level 50?
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On top of the ‘ga levels of magic, Sora can also use the all-powerful ‘za magics, just like Aqua in KH 0.2.
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One new trick that Sora’s got that Aqua didn’t is the ability to use Aeroga and Aeroza. Here is our first look at Aeroza in action.
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Wicked pose, Sora. Also, take note of the Second Form graphic here, and how it’s mostly blue-focused.
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Just moments later we see Second Form in action again, but with a gold theme going on this time. What could trigger the different… uh… forms of Second Form?
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As we saw Aeroza previously, now we see Aeroga as Sora uses the wind attack to shoot across the room. By the way, this temple environment is completely new. Could this be the inside of Zeus’ temple?
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Grinding returns in Kingdom Hearts III, following its prevalence in both KH Dream Drop Distance and KH 0.2.
Rock Titan, Part 2
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This segment of the trailer looks quite similar to a bit in the 2013 D23 Expo trailer, albeit much, much better.
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Rock Titan knocks Sora off the wall, but Sora – seemingly in-game, and not in a cutscene – is able to run along the wall to dodge incoming attacks. It’s not quite like Dream Drop Distance’s Flowmotion, but perhaps it is an evolution of that mechanic. Or maybe it’s just a quick-time event without the button prompts being shown in this trailer. Who knows?
XIII
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Here we get our first glimpse at the area outside of Twilight Town’s Old Mansion in Kingdom Hearts III. We’ve seen other areas of Twilight Town in previous KHIII trailers, going all the way back to the announcement trailer at E3 2013, but until now we haven’t seen the Old Mansion make an appearance. Unlike the rest of this new trailer, Sora is finally in his official Kingdom Hearts III duds. How far into the game this scene plays is anyone’s guess, aside from being at least after you leave Mount Olympus. As for what they’re discussing, apparently Sora wants to bring Roxas back to life and give him his own body somehow, instead of just being his Nobody, but Xemnas is here to squash that hope.
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Sora has always been full of light and hope, and Xemnas/Ansem/Xehanort have long tried to bring him to the side of darkness. If Xemnas is to be believed, using the darkness is the only way to bring Roxas back, thus creating a great struggle for Sora.
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Finally, after the title card fades away (notably still leaving out any sort of release date or window) we are left with the promise of a new trailer coming from the D23 Expo next month, on July 15, 2017. This new trailer will feature a brand new world, which is exciting since we haven’t been gifted one of those since the Big Hero 6 announcement at the 2015 D23 Expo, and we didn’t even see any gameplay footage; just a (totally badass) piece of concept art. So the last new world we actually saw in action was that of Tangled, revealed two full years ago at E3 2015. The only clue we have to go on to try guessing what the new world might be is the silhouette of Sora wielding another new Keyblade transformation. The tip looks mighty powerful, and like it might perhaps open up to let out a large blast. It’s not giving me any signals as to what it might be, so if you’ve got an idea, leave it in the comments below!
Also be sure to let us know if there are any other interesting tidbits you noticed in the trailer that we may have missed!
Kingdom Hearts III is set to launch for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. There is no release date at this time.